Rocky Mountain blues

March 5, 2004
by Jake Lloyd
Sports Editor

For Albion students who love skiing, snowboarding and the wintry outdoors, Colorado, and its Rocky Mountains, is like—well, let’s not push it—something just short of paradise.

Flashy resorts cover the beautiful Colorado landscape, providing the perfect getaway for those who are ski- or snowboard-hungry.

You just can’t compare Michigan’s measly ski mountains—or should we call them hills—to even the tiniest ski resorts in Colorado’s thin air. Mount Brighton, the closest ski area to my hometown of Ann Arbor, is flat terrain when put next to a Rockies’ ski resort.

This beautiful mountainous state is attracting a new breed of tourist. And it’s not the pretty type.

Sure, the number of people visiting Colorado hasn’t dwindled—and probably never will—but different kinds of people have visited the region during the last six months, and they’re not the kind of people looking to burn a few hundred bucks on a great day of skiing, a night in the hot tub, and maybe a round of golf on the lower land the following day.

But they’re serious people dealing with serious issues. In July, NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, of the Los Angeles Lakers, immediately made Colorado known as more than just a skier’s haven when he was charged with sexual assault. Bryant said he only had consensual sex with the woman in the resort in Eagle County. He was staying there to rehabilitate his surgically-repaired knee.

Within days the town was taken over, not by skiers, but by members of the national media. Since then, it’s been a media circus, with TV station or newspaper reporters talking or writing about the case almost every day.

And it’s not likely to end soon. The trial is still months away.

The hottest spot in Colorado right now isn’t the Rockies. It isn’t even Denver, the home of rookie extraordinaire Carmelo Anthony, little-big man Earl Boykins and the surprisingly good Denver Nuggets of the NBA.

No, thanks to Kobe, it’s Eagle County, an area in central Colorado of 41,659 citizens, according to the 2000 U.S. census. On the Eagle County official website, a quote flashes across the screen and then disappears. It reads, “#1 Ski Mountain in North America.”

The quote might as well disappear for a good six months because right now Eagle County is “The #1 hangout for the media, lawyers, and, oh yeah, controversy.”

But don’t be fooled. Eagle County isn’t the only place in Colorado that’s getting attention for a bad reason.

Welcome to Boulder, home of Colorado University. The city, consisting of 96,000-plus citizens, according to the 2000 census, is slightly northwest of Denver, not more than an hour or two from Eagle County. Boulder residents usually enjoy more than 300 sunny days each year—not to mention the mountains and 300-plus restaurants and entertainment establishments.

Lately the forecast in Boulder has been for clouds. The football program has been the subject of several accusations of sexual assault by men on the team. These accusations stem from an alcohol-abusive recruiting party on Dec. 7, 2001. According to the Rocky Mountain News, two CU students said they were sexually assaulted at the party, while another said she was raped afterward.

The News said that another incident occurred on Sept. 28, 2001, when, according to a student, a football player forced her to have sex with him. And police are currently investigating another alleged sexual assault.

It’s impossible to even think about the beautiful mountains surrounding Boulder when this kind of scandal is going on. In a Feb. 23 Sports Illustrated column by Rick Reilly, Katie Hnida, who as a place-kicker in 1999 was the only woman ever to play on the team, said she was verbally abused and molested by teammates before being raped by one.

When asked why Hnida left Colorado after the ’99 season, CU coach Gary Barnett, who has been put on administrative leave while a special commission investigates recruiting and sexual harassment issues, said, “Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible. . . . There’s no other way to say it.”

After hearing these words on ESPN’s SportsCenter, I couldn’t believe my ears. A college coach saying that about a person who was allegedly raped?

It’s these kinds of things that make me think, “I really don’t want to go to Colorado. Michigan’s fine. Our little ski resorts are fine. Plus, I hardly ski anyway.”

The Colorado Rockies may be one of the most beautiful places in the United States.

But it’s really not very sunny in Colorado right now.